Steve Madden’s Plan to Enter the Mobile World

Optimistic predictions about mobile advertising are not new at all. You can find a whole bunch of experts claiming that the mobile phone will become the most sought-after advertising platform in the future. However, when something that validates these claims happens, it surely is exciting.

Steve Madden, a San Francisco based retail shoe brand, has been bitten by the mobile bug and is considering shifting its focus on mobile phone advertising. Jared Horowitz, who is in charge of the business development section of Steve Madden, has stated that it has become an integral part of their digital business.

As of now, only 0.5% of Steve Madden’s revenue is generated by mobile users. The company, however, is hopeful that the revenue will increase significantly in the coming years if they develop a mobile optimized site and drive traffic to it by running innovative mobile advertising campaigns. So, to prepare themselves for the mobile juggernaut, they have come up with a long list of plans. They include

• Developing a mobile optimized WAP site which is easy to navigate.

• Adding lots of interactive features to the site like click-to-call functionality (to help people get in touch with sales persons directly) and mobile social networking functionality (to help people share their favorite stuff with their friends via email, Twitter, or Facebook).

• Adding a Store Locator feature to help people find the nearest Steve Madden store.

• Developing an application for the iPhone and iPod Touch to make it easier for iPhone users to reach the site.

• Setting up multiple revenue streams with mobile web display ads, mobile search ads, and in-app display ads.

• Introducing SMS offers and mobile coupons to engage potential customers.

• Devising innovative mobile marketing strategies to target potential customers.

According to the numbers revealed by the company, the non-optimized site of Steve Madden got more than 55,000 visitors via mobile devices in the month of February. There were more than 300,000 page views and 450 purchases. If they go ahead with the plan and implement the ideas they have come up with, they will be able to get a lot more visitors in a short span of time. More traffic, needless to add, will result in more revenue, which is always good news for any company. It should be interesting to see where Steve Madden goes from here.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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Customized Mobile App for Windows Mobile Users from the Associated Press

The Associated Press has developed a mobile application for Windows Marketplace for Mobile. The application, aptly named AP Mobile, gives Windows Mobile users access to the global news network of the Associated Press. If you download this application onto your mobile phone, you will be able to get all the information you want right on your mobile phone.

If you remember, the Associated Press launched its own mobile news portal some time back. The response, as expected, has been very good so far. With more than 1.5 million registered users, AP’s mobile application is one of the most popular apps in the marketplace today. Still, AP wants to extend the reach of its mobile news network further. So, the company thinks that developing a customized application for Windows Mobile users is the first step in the right direction.

The introduction of this application will help AP in two ways. One – it will make its mobile news portal very popular. Two – it will create new revenue streams for its members. It will be beneficial for Microsoft as well as it gives Windows Mobile users access to a wide range of information, tools, games, and more. If you are a Windows phone user, this app will bring you stock market news, weather news, sports updates, local news and international news, lifestyle tips, travel tips, and entertainment news right to your mobile phone screen.

The app also includes plenty of social networking features which allow you to share a news story with your friends instantly on Twitter or Facebook. You also have the option of bookmarking it in your Delicious account. If you want to share something privately with your friends, you can email the story as well.

So, how have Windows Mobile users reacted to this new app? A cursory look at the comments section on Windows Marketplace for Mobile gives a good idea. It is full of positive comments like ‘great app’, ‘user friendly app’, ‘nice social networking features’, and so on. So, we can expect a lot more users to download this app. AP has plenty of reasons to smile. If you are a Windows Mobile user, make sure you check out this application and let me know your thoughts.

Categories: All things mobile phones, Microsoft.

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Mobile World in 2009 - Some Numbers

Check out these numbers from the Mobile Market View study by BIA/Kelsey.

• The number of people who use social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace increased by nearly 7% in 2009.

• The number of mobile users who send or receive more than 10 emails a week increased by nearly 10%.

• The number of mobile phone users who send or receive more than 10 text messages a week increased by nearly 10%.

• The number of people searching the internet for products and services available in their area increased by nearly 3%.

• The number of local searches done on the mobile phone exceeds the number of out-of-area searches. In other words, local search is increasingly becoming popular with mobile users across the country.

Done? Now, check out some random statistics I picked up from various sites on the internet.

• There are about three billion mobile phones in the world today, which makes mobile technology the most widely used technology on the planet today.

• For a large number of 16-24 year olds, the mobile phone is a lot more important than the TV.

• The number of people who have mobile phones is significantly higher than the number of people who have credit cards.

• The amount spent on mobile media rose by nearly 40% last year. In other words, mobile media is the fastest growing media channel in the world today.

• In 2012, the amount spent on mobile media in the U.S. will be somewhere around $6 billion. The total amount spent on mobile media worldwide will be in the range of $18-20 billion.

What do these numbers tell you? Firstly, the world is becoming increasingly mobile savvy. Secondly, a large number of mobile phone users use their phone for browsing the net, searching for stuff, listening to music, watching videos, and connecting with their friends through various social networking sites. So, the mobile phone is no longer just meant for sending and receiving text messages and calls. It is slowly becoming a multidimensional tool.

If 2009 is a precursor of things to come in the world of mobile phones, we can expect a lot more in the coming years. And that is good news for mobile advertisers all over the world.

Categories: All things mobile phones.

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The Need for Mobile Websites - Will Big Brands Wake Up?

Here’s a news item that surprised me to say the least. Interbrand recently released its list of the top 100 brands for 2009 and nearly 1/3rd of the brands in that list do not have their own mobile website.

If your reaction to this news is ‘dude, what’s the big deal?’ – let me tell you something. According to statistics, the number of people who use smart phones (read iPhone, Blackberry, Android, etc) keeps increasing every year. In North America alone, nearly 26% of mobile users use the mobile web facility on their phone regularly. In other words, they use their mobile phone to browse the web. With more and more people buying internet enabled high end phones, it is only logical to assume that this percentage will grow significantly in the near future. So, you’d assume that big brands would have woken up to reality long time back and created their own mobile websites, right? Well; it turns out it is not the case.

Remember – I am not talking about small, lesser known brands here. Big, famous brands like Coca Cola and GE do not have a mobile website. To say that this is surprising is a huge understatement.

I have talked about the importance of big brands having a good mobile presence and how important it is to have a decent mobile website. I firmly believe that a well designed, easy to access mobile website is of paramount importance for any brand, leave alone huge brands like Coca Cola and GE.

Some could argue that iPhone and certain other mobile phones offer a full browser experience and so there is no need for a mobile website. Guess what? Not everyone in the U.S. uses an iPhone. There are other phones whose mobile browsers are not nearly as good as the iPhone mobile browser. What about the people who use these phones? What are they supposed to do?

Contrary to what most people think, browsing the web using a mobile phone is not easy. The screen is small, the keypad is small, and it is certainly not as easy as browsing the web on your PC or laptop. This is why you need to have a customized mobile website which loads quickly and easy to navigate. It is not hard to do. Facebook has a very good mobile site, Toyota has one, MySpace has one, Microsoft has one, and a number of other famous brands have one too. So, the only explanation is that some brands have not yet realized the potential of mobile internet and are reluctant to reach out to their users through their most personal device – the mobile phone.

I hope it does not stay this way. The future is mobile and let us hope – for the sake of all mobile users in the world – these brands realize this sooner than later.

Categories: All things mobile phones, Mobile Web.

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Facebook Mobile Reaches a New Milestone - 65 Million Active Users

Facebook Mobile has reached a new milestone folks. It now has over 65 million active users from different parts of the world, making it one of the most popular mobile social networking sites in the world today. What makes this news even more incredible is that it has happened in an incredibly short span of time. About eight months back, the number of active users was only around 20 million. Now, it is well over 65 million. In other words, the site has attracted more than 40 million new users in a span of eight months – eight months. Incredible is the only word that comes to my mind.

Let us dissect this achievement a little. There are a number of mobile social networking sites available today. What makes Facebook Mobile so popular among mobile users? From what I have seen so far, I can think of the following reasons.

• It is available in a number of different languages. So, no matter what language you speak, you are likely to find a version of Facebook Mobile in that language.

• There are a large number of Facebook Mobile applications available for different types of handsets including iPhone, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Palm, Samsung, HTC, Windows Mobile, and Blackberry. So, no matter what handset you use, you can access it easily.

• It has come up with innovative features like Facebook SMS which lets you set your status, receive notifications, and send and receive messages via SMS. It is very convenient for people who are not able to log into the mobile site all the time.

• It is available in two formats – an ordinary version which works on any mobile phone and a special version which is meant only for touch screen phones.

Not hard to understand why the website has attracted so many people, isn’t it? In fact, experts say that the site will have more than 100 million users in 2010. Considering its growth in the past few months, it is not hard to believe.

Finally, here’s something for the hardcore Facebook users among you. People on Facebook Blog have announced that Facebook Connect, starting from today, will be available on a number of mobile sites and applications. Well; you knew they had something up their sleeve, didn’t you?

PS: To know more about mobile social networking, you can check out this post.

Categories: All things mobile phones, Mobile Social Networking.

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